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Scheduling: The 2019 Australian Grand Prix

Formula 1 roars back into life, with the championship starting down under in Melbourne for the Australian Grand Prix!

For UK fans, the action airs exclusively live on Sky, with highlights on Channel 4. If you are not yet accustomed to hearing that sentence yet, you will soon, as that sentence applies for 20 of the 21 races this season, and (partially) applies until the end of 2024.

Change at Sky…A lot has happened since both broadcasters went off the air at the end of 2018. Karun Chandhok and Jenson Button have joined Sky for the upcoming season, adding depth to their line-up.

The rest of Sky’s line-up remains the same as last year, 2019 marking their eighth season covering the sport. Simon Lazenby will continue to front their coverage, with David Croft and Martin Brundle on commentary.

However, Sky have reduced Ted Kravitz’s contribution for 2019, after u-turning on an earlier decision to axe him from their coverage. Kravitz is with Sky for 14 races this season, whilst his Notebook output is no more based on current schedules. Kravitz is presenting a midweek show called Midweek Debrief, but this is an F1 production as opposed to an in-house Sky production.

On the programming front, Sky have extended their Thursday preview show, added a 30-minute wrap-up show on Friday, and kept The F1 Show on Saturday’s after qualifying. On race day, Sky have also extended Paddock Live to an hour, but it also starts half an hour earlier, meaning that Sky will head off-air earlier on Sunday’s than previously.

Sky are simulcasting their programming throughout the weekend across Sky One and Sky Sports Main Event. On Sunday, they are replaying the race five times in full across the F1 channel, Sky One and Main Event before Channel 4’s highlights programme has even started!

…and at Channel 4…With Chandhok moving over to Sky, Channel 4 have added Billy Monger and Stefano Domenicali to their line-up. Both of them join Steve Jones, David Coulthard and Mark Webber in Melbourne, with Ben Edwards continuing to commentate alongside Coulthard. The broadcaster has retained Lee McKenzie, despite McKenzie previously intending to move onto pastures new this season.

As expected, Channel 4’s highlights programme is shorter than last year, with decreases of 20 minutes (18%) and 45 minutes (27%) for qualifying and the race respectively. The decreases are bigger than expected, as Australia received a generous edit from Channel 4 historically compared to races later in the season.

Decreases aside, fans will notice change from the very first second of Channel 4’s programme. Fleetwood Mac’s The Chain is no more. In its place I understand is a new, modern theme to kick-start Channel 4’s 2019 coverage.

…and at the Beeb
For those of you without Sky, the BBC’s 5 Live coverage of Formula 1 remains. The broadcaster has not officially confirmed their radio line-up, although expect no changes on the personnel side. IMG are producing their coverage this season after winning the contract from USP Content last October.

Elsewhere in the motor sport spectrum, the World Endurance Championship returns to action in Sebring, whilst Supercars plays its part on the F1 support bill, which UK viewers will have access to for the first time.

Update on March 12th – Added Ted Kravitz’s new show with F1 TV (also airing on Sky), plus updated the Supercars schedule.

Update on March 15th – Added Stefano Domenicali to Channel 4’s line-up. Also, Supercars has disappeared from BT Sport’s schedules. Historically, there were restrictions around what broadcasters could air from Supercars in Melbourne as it falls under the F1 support package, restrictions which still apply. The only place for UK fans to see the action is via SuperView,.

12 thoughts on “Scheduling: The 2019 Australian Grand Prix”

Most of what Sky are doing sounds positive, except for the reduction in Ted Kravitz presence. My only real complaint is the the way that Crofty’s commentary has escalated in terms of it’s overwrought and sometimes near hysteria, esp at the starts/restarts. IMO, Brundle is a treasure.

I hope it’s not a Johnny “sort of” Herbert (“they’re all sort of trying to do the fastest lap they can”) weekend on Sky. Though I have been sort of practising with the mute button on my sort of remote control so I can flip the sound on and off to avoid sort of hearing him sort of saying “sort of” all the sort of time.

I saw him doing his pundit thing on the Netflix doc for the first time. He asked a driver a question & then started laughing maniacally like a drunk uncle at a wedding. Don’t honk I I could take too much of Sky’s ‘experts’.
As a general rule I would rather broadcasters went down the EuroSport route & just showed the world feed without the need for ‘experts’, ‘pundits’ and talking heads…

shorter C4 show but I guess they still want to squeeze as many ad breaks in so will be interesting what the actual race edit looks like.
C4 and commercial TV are not the biggest problem though as that was seen on BBC Formula E coverage at the weekend with a pointlessly long studio bit which showed 10 seconds of qualifying and cut the last 3-4 mins of the race due to the race stoppages
To be frank I couldn’t even be bothered to find it on BBC iplayer or youtube later as all
they showed the whole race was 1&2 car circulating. What a truly pathetic effort all round.

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